Learning to Love
by silly pancake22
Summary: Once Dick Grayson gets a taste of what life would be like without Barbara, he is inspired to make sure he will never have to!


LEARNING TO LOVE

All characters copyright to DC comics

pairing: Barbara Gordon (as batgirl) and Dick Grayson (as robin)

Fighting crime was a typical occurrence for the Gotham trio. Batman took care of the big guns and Batgirl and Robin would hold off the villain's minions. It was a very good system, it almost never failed, almost.

it was just like any other friday night, a break in or two, a few robberies, a person held at gun point; mere child's play for Gotham's crime fighting team. The time was 9:34 p.m, the team may even turn in early, the streets were so quite, it was almost eerie.

"Hmmph" An enigmatic Batman grumbled "Something isn't right..." He paced back and forth on the top of the twenty story building they were perched on.

"Face it Bruce, its just a quiet night, why don't you stop your worrying and just accept it!" Dick said, he hated having to waste his weekends fighting crime, especially when there was none.

"No, I agree with Batman, Gotham is never this quiet on a Friday night..." Said a puzzled Batgirl, she looked at her teammates "It just doesn't feel right..."

Only seconds after the words rolled off her tongue the peaceful night sky was interrupted by the sounds of gun fire and explosions.

"I KNEW IT!" cried Robin, "Trouble!"

Barbara rolled her eyes at him.

"Lets go" Batman said in his strict tone.

The three of them grappled from roof top to roof top towards the sounds of the explosions. Moments later they arrived at the scene, police cars and s.w.a.t vans had already arrived and the 10 o'clock news helicopter was circling in the sky.

Batman was the first to land on the ground, followed soon after by Batgirl and Robin behind him. The commissioner met them to fill them in on the happenings."Its Penguin at it again..."

They had arrived at Gotham's museum of fine art. "What is he up to?" Batman asked, examining the scene.

"No one is entirely sure, he is only holding hostages for the moment, he isn't asking for money or any of the items inside of the museum." The commissioner scratched his head. "It appears that he is only being a public nuisance."

Batman glared at the commissioner with a look of disgust. "No, thats not it. He is merely creating a distraction... something else is going on around here." He glanced up towards the roof of the museum, catching a glimpse of a lean black figure escaping from an open window.

He scowled. "Cat woman..." Preparing his grapple hook, "You two go after Penguin... I'll be right back."

Batgirl and Robin dashed towards the step of the museum to ambush Professor Penguin before he could escape. But they were seconds too late to capture him with ease. He had transformed his infamous purple umbrella into a propeller and was beginning to make his escape.

In the meantime Batman had caught up with the real villain of the evening.

"Catwoman, we meet again."

"I gotta hand it to you Bruce, you sure caught on to my little plan fast." Catwoman said in a seductive tone.

"Your learning the crime business all to well..." He grunted

"Only trying to keep you in business, Bats..." She cupped his face lightly.

"And Penguin? Why did you choose him to get involved..."

"He's nothing but an ugly little pawn who was swayed by my beauty... he was willing to do anything..."

"What did you take..." He looked down at her hand, where she was carrying a burlap sack.

She opened the sack casually and took out a diamond the size of a potato. "What else?" She winked at him.

"I should have figured..." He leaped towards her quickly enough to snatch the diamond from her claws and to secure both her hands behind her back. He quickly became distracted when he heard several more explosions and the sound of Barbara's screams. He released his hold on Catwoman and looked down below to see that Barbara was surrounded by Penguins minions and Robin was caught up in trying to stop Penguin from escaping.

Bruce grunted in frustration; he turned to see that Catwoman had escaped. Bruce clutched the diamond tightly and leaped back down to the street.

"Robin! What the hell do you think your doing!"

"I-I tired to stop Penguin from getting away! But he dropped all of his minions on Batgirl and I couldn't help her!" He yelled in desperation.

Batman ran to assist Barbara, she was badly injured and losing her battle against the bombs and gunfire of the penguin bots. Batman shoved her out of the way to safety, Robin released his hold on Penguin to rush to Barbara's side.

"Go back to the cave Robin, get her to safety! I can handle it from here!" Batman finished off the rest of the minions while Robin loaded the unconscious Batgirl onto the back of his motorcycle. He felt like such a failure for letting Penguin escape and even more of a failure for allowing Barbara to get hurt.

He sped off back to the Batcave as fast as he could, on the way he kept replaying the events of the night in his head, he couldn't stop thinking about all of the things he could have done differently. Alfred met them at the entrance of the cave where he speedily unloaded a very weak miss Gordon onto a bed where he could tend to her wounds.

"I- Alfred- How could I have let this happen to her?" Robin looked down at her wounds, they weren't serious, but they were all his fault, he became too preoccupied with catching Professor Penguin that he neglected the safety of his partner and as a result, she got hurt. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before; and not to mention the talking to that he was going to get from Bruce when he get back.

"Master Grayson, go get washed up, you have had a rather tormenting evening, I will care for Miss Grayson, you needn't worry."

Dick took a deep breath in. He walked up the stairs the led from the cave into Wayne manor, where he again walked up another flight of stairs to his room. He removed his mask and washed his face. He avoided looking at himself, he thought that he might puke in disgust. He took off his costume and threw it on the ground, he wasn't worthy of wearing it. He threw on a pair of black sweat pants and a navy blue tee shirt. In the frustration that he felt he slammed his head down on his dresser and banged his fists. "Gaaah!" He yelled.

Knock. Knock. Bruce had returned from the battle, he had changed out of his costume as well. Bruce Wayne took several steps into the boy's room, but Dick did not move.

"Dick..." He said in a calm voice.

"I know... I failed." He said in a distressed voice "I let Penguin get away, I hurt Barbara- I- I ruined everything!"

"No, Penguin hurt Barbara-"

"But I didn't stop it!" He fretted, his fists were shaking in rage.

"Dick, you learned a valuable lesson today." Bruce took a deep breath. "A lesson that I haven't even learned..."

Dick looked up at him with a puzzled expression. "You've learned to put your teammate first, even if it means letting the bad guy go..." Bruce placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You've learned to love, Dick." Bruce's voice had an underlying feeling of sadness and regret. Dick dropped his head into his palms and sat on the edge of his bed.

Bruce turned to leave the boy "Barbara is already doing better." He stated "However, I feel that she should stay the night here so we can keep an eye on her." He cleared his throat. "However, none of the other rooms are suitable for her to stay in at the moment, so she will be staying in here with you." Bruce walked out of Dicks room and into his study. Dick slowly stood up and walked out of his room. He turned towards the stairs and back towards the entrance to the cave. His head became overwhelmed with fear that Barbara was going to hate him for the rest of their lives. But his body wouldn't allow him to stop moving forward. He arrived at the cave when Alfred heard him come on.

"Master Grayson?"

"Yeah, Alf, its me." His nerves were settling in the closer he got.

"I presume you are here to take Miss Grayson to your room for the night."

"Uh yeah" He shrugged.

"She should be waking up within the next few hours, if she is still in pain give her one of these," He handed Dick a few caplets of 800 mg ibuprofen.

Dick looked down at her, her arms and legs had bandages and gauze all over them, her face remained relatively untouched. Alfred had removed her mask and outer layers of her costume leaving her on only a small black tank top and shorts.

Dick reached down to pick her up bridal style to carry her back up to his room, he ever so delicately placed his hands under her legs and back, trying to not hurt her any more than he already did.

"And Master Dick," Alfred stopped him briefly. "Just because you have a lovely young woman in your room this evening doesn't mean you can try anything funny with her.." Alfred waved his finger at the boy, who tried to smile at Alfred's attempt of lightening the mood, but couldn't.

He swiftly carried her limp body up several flights of stairs with ease, she wasn't very heavy to him. He gently placed her in the center of his bed and covered her with a blanket. He cupped her cheek softly and looked down at her still face. He sat up beside her on the edge of the bed with his face buried in his hands. His mind became so flooded with thoughts that he couldn't hardly comprehend a single one. He had never felt so strongly about Barbara's safety until she was almost taken away from him. Barbara had always been beside him, she never really left his sight; up until today he hadn't thought much of it, or much of what it would be like if she were gone. But now, he hated the very idea of her being hurt. About an hour had passed and he had remained un-phased until he heard the sounds of Barbara stirring in her sleep, on the verge of waking. He stared at her with intense focus, moments later her eyes fluttered open; she met his stare and smiled which gave him a brief sense of comfort.

"You must think I'm a wimp..." She spoke softly

"You must think I'm a jerk..." He replied quickly

"Why would I think that?" She gave him a cute puzzled expression.

"Because I should have been there to help you! If I had been there to help you, you wouldn't have gotten hurt!" His words became panicked.

She let out a small chuckle "Dick, are you over thinking things again?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

Her lack of anger surprised him. "So your not even mad at me?"

"Dick, I can't get mad at you for every cut or bruise that I get from fighting" She looked up at him and placed a comforting hand on his leg.

"But what if you get seriously hurt?" He clenched his fists again.

"Its not your job to protect me, Dick." She moved her hand over his fist and stroked it softly.

"But what if I lose you for good?" He looked down at her with a heavily serious stare.

"Why are you so worried all of a sudden?" This was a behavior that she rarely saw in him.

"I just don't think I could stand losing you... Barbara... You mean a lot to me." He intertwined their fingers.

"What has come over you, Dick Grayson!" She laughed as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I've never seen you worry about anything a day in your life and now your stressing out over a few cuts and burns? Are you sure your okay?" She moved her other hand to stroke his face. He leaned in towards her touch.

"I guess you could say that I'm learning to love..." The words spilled out of his mouth.

Barbara froze in shock, she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

"I never realized how much I need you in my life until tonight, when I got the first glimpse of what my life would be without you. Before this I never felt like I could care about someone again." He turned his body to face her completely. "When my parents died I felt that loving someone was too complicated and that I would only end up getting hurt in the end... But Barbara I can't stop myself from loving you."

"Dick..." She said, still in shock, " I never had any idea that you felt this way..."

"Neither did I." He shrugged. "But Barbara... could you do me one favor?" He stroked her cheek softly running his thumb over her lips.

"Yes.." She whispered

"Will you let me love you, Barbara Gordon, let me love you and maybe one day you will love me too."

"Dick," She looked deeply into his eyes. "I think I'm learning to love you already..."

two cheesy sloppy stories in one night! man i'm tired

peace out every body hope you enjoyed it! sorry its like 2 am right now... time for me to sleep!


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